Improvement in cooking-stoves



A. G BARSTOW.

Cooking Stove.

Patented June 5, 1866.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIC A. O. BARSTOW, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN COOKlNG-STOVES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N0. 55,225, dated June 5, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, A. O. BARSTOW, of Providence, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Stoves and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 represents a longitudinal vertical section on the line 00 m, Fig. 4, of a stove constructed in accordance with my invention Fig. 2, a rear elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical section on the liney y, Fig. 4. Fig. 4 represents a plan or top View of the stove. Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11,12,l3, andl i represent detached parts, which will be hereinafter described.

The object of my invention is to remedy certain defects which are found in cook-stoves as at present constructed, so as to render them more compact in form and better fitted for the various uses for which they are intended.

Cook-stoves are usually constructed with a single outlet for smoke, and this is fixed and unchangeable. To connect this outlet with the flues in chimneys, which are sometimes near the floor and at others near the ceiling, or to connectthem with both low and high flues, as is sometimes necessary in the same house, so as to be changed with the changing seasons, requires an expensive and unsightly complication of elbows and pipe.

So, also, to adapt the stove to the use of a large water-tank to be heated by the passage of the smoke-flue through it, as is now quite common, requires an entire remodeling of the stove, the substitution of a new and extended top plate, back plate, 850.

I obviate all these difficulties by a most simple and cheap arrangement of a changeable collar, which can be attached to the flue on the back or top of the stove, and can be applied or changed, even by inexperienced hands, in a moments time and without the use of screw or bolt. By this arrangement a straight or crooked collar may be attached to the back of the stove, so as to receive a horizontal or perpendicular pipe, or the rear outlet can be closed and a self-adjusting collar can be used on the top in connection with one of the boiler-holes. As these collars can be packed in the stove for transportation, the stove is rendered more compact and the risk and cost of transportation are much reduced.

By this arrangement a hot-water tank can be used with or without a smoke flue passing through it, the advantage in making it without being obvious, as it gives more room for water in the tank and allows its beingremoved from the stove for cleaning.

The second part of myimprovement consists in so constructing a fire-grate that it may be used to equal advantage with either coal or wood. To burn wood in cook-stoves and ranges to the best advantage, it should lie upon the ashes and not upon an open grate. If upon an open grate it burns faster, and as it becomes charred falls into smaller pieces, and dropping through the openings of the grate is lost, and before the cook is aware of the fact the fire needs rekindling. It has therefore been difficult to adapt a cooking-stove to the use of coal and wood and have it work well for both. 'VVhen arranged for coal much room is needed below the grate as a receptacle for ashes, cinders, and old coal. Changin g from coal to wood, it is necessary by some means to lift thewood up from the bottom of the ash-pit so as to bring it nearer to the boilers, and in doing it with an ordinary grate the evil above named is experienced. To avoid this evil I make the grate in the form of a pan with a sunken solid bottom, introducing the air needful to supply draft by openings around the sides an inch (more or less) above the bottom. By this arrangement there can be a collection of ashes upon this solid bottom suflicient to hold all the small coals and cinders, preserving the fire and supplying the heat as long as these last to the processes of cooking.

And the third part of my improvement consists in the arrangement of the hot closet for warming dishes, 8m, and the novel position it occupies in relation to the stove.

Cooking-stoves are always elevated from five to eight inches above the floor. There are two reasons for this. First, safety. As they stand upon floors or carpets, they must be lifted to prevent damage to them by the heat radiated from the bottom; and,second, convenience. The elevation required for safety brings the boiler-plate to the height most convenient for use. All the room thus made under the stoveis lost, and perhaps worse than lost. The stove is rendered somewhat unsightly, and the room becomes acatch-all for dirt and rubbish.

To obtain a hot closet or plate-warmer it has been usual to extend the same on the rear of the stove, thus adding to its size, and, as the closet is made of tin, somewhat disfiguring the stove.

I propose to obtain this convenience of a hot closet by using the waste room under the stove. As the body of the closet immediately underneath the bottom of the stove is made of tin, it acts as a jacket to the stove and becomes, by its reflecting power, a protection to carpet and floor, while the external surfaoe,'bein g of iron and forming a base to the stove, really adds to its beauty. The sides and ends of the closet may be made in connection with the sides and ends of the stove, or they may be made as a frame upon which the stove can stand, as upon a base, or the closet may be suspended by bolts to the bottom of the stove. I prefer the method of making the closet as a base of the stove, as by that means the stove can be used with the closet or with ordinary legs, as the owner may prefer.

To enable others to make and use my invention, I will now proceed to describe the manner in which the same is or may be carried into effect by reference to the accompanying drawmgs.

The stove represented in Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4 is a cooking-stove of otherwise ordinary or suitable construction, having, as usual, its outlet or flue located at A, as shown in section in Fig. 1. and in elevation in Fig. 2. The opening for the outlet of smoke or the products of combustion, in this instance,is provided with a frame, into which may be fitted collars of various forms, or closing-disks as the case may be, for purposes hereinbefore mentioned. The frame is cast in one'piece, with the back or rear plate of the stove, and is so formed as to project fromthe face of the back by providing it with ornamental molding or otherwise. It may be square, quadrangular, or of any other desired form 5 but I prefer, for the sake of beauty and strength in casting, as well as convenience in fitting the changeable pieces therein, to give the frame a semi-oval shape. On the interior border of the frame a recess is formed by means of a flange, a, against which the collar-plate or closing-disk rests when set. To support and hold the changeable pieces in place the frame is also provided with a socket, b, and an overhanging lip, 0, into which the top and the tongue on the bottom of the corresponding pieces respectively enter. In Fig. 14. I have shown, in horizontal transverse section, the frame with the closingdisk fitted therein. Fig. 10 represents afront elevation of the form of collar used when the stove-pipe is conducted directly back to the chimney-flue without change of direction, and Fig. 11 represents a side elevation of the same. The form of collar shown in Figs. 12 and 13 is used when, in order to conduct the pipe to the chimney-flue, it becomes necessary to give it an upward direction. Both of these collars are easily fitted to the flue. In each the flange the recess formed by the overhanging lip afar enough to allow the tongue d to clear the socket I), when the whole is dropped down into its seat b. In this manner the collar is held firmly to the flue without the aid of screw or bolt,

while at the same time it is capable of being instantly removed and replaced by another by the means and in the manner described.

If, for any reason, as hereinbefore indicated, it becomes desirable to close the outlet A at the rear of the stove and to conduct the pi )e from the top of the stove, this can readily be done. The flue or outlet A is closed by means ofthe disk or cover 0., (shown in Figs. 8 and 9,) which is of corresponding shape with the frame to which it is attached and secured, as shown in the case of the collars, Figs. l0, 12, as above described. For convenience of handling, the plate is provided with a projecting stud, e, by means of which it may be adj usted to or removed from the flue. One of the boiler-holes on the top of the stove D, Fig. 4, may be used for the flue or outlet. To this effect the flange or projection f for supporting the cover (as in any ordinary stove) is provided with a notch, E, for thepurposeshereinafterdescribed. Inconnection with this boiler'hole, a collar of the form shown in Figs. 6, 7 is employed. The base or flange of the collar corresponds in size with the boiler-hole, and to its under side are cast the hooks G G, whereby the collar is held to the top of the stove c. In fitting this collar to the boiler-hole one of the hooks, G, is engaged under the flange f, and then the collar is moved around until the other hook, G, comes opposite the notch E, through whichit will drop, and thus cause the collar to fit tightly over the hole. By a further turn of the collar both hooks are made to engage under the flange.

In Figs. 1 and 3 is shown, in section, the hot closet hereinbefore described, composed of a tin jacket, H, which issurrounded and held in place by an outer frame or casting, which forms the base of the stove, and which may be more or less ornamental. The closet may be'provided with doors hinged to its bottom, in order that when the same are opened they may be flush with and form a continuation of the bottom, thus constituting a platform to the closet.

Fig. 5 represents the fire-grate for wood and coal, constructed as herein described, and shown in section at I, Fig. 1. The bottom or bed of the grate is made solid and without openings, in order to hold the wood and ashes. About an inch, more or less, above the bottom are lateral openings '6 6, through which the air is supplied to the fuel. The grate tapers on the sides toward the bottom, and is supported in the stove by means of flanges or other means usually employed in like cases.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

1. The construction of stoves of otherwise ordinary or suitable arrangement for admission of interchangeable collars or closing-caps for the flue and boiler-holes, substantially in the manner herein described, dispensing with the use of rivets or other means of permanent attachment.

2. The combination, with a stove of otherwise ordinary or suitable construction, of a hot closet arranged underneath the body of the stove, substantially as shown and set forth.

3. In a stove provided with a hot closet iv a witnesses.

A. O. BARSTOW.

Witnesses A. PoLLoK, EDM. F. BROWN. 

